It's not women who need to change but the world of work

By Catherine Fox

February 28, 2017 — 1.07pm

Although the commonly-dispensed career advice would have you believe otherwise, women don't need fixing. Of course, that hasn't stopped us flocking to professional events aimed at helping us to drag ourselves out from under the gender paywall.

International Women's Day events in particular usually get a good roll-up: a panel discussion at a large corporate head office in Sydney scheduled for March 8 recently sold out in days and attracted an audience of 180.

The hard work of analysing and addressing gender barriers is still seen as women's business.Credit:AMC

But the fact there's still so much demand for discussions about workplace diversity and tips for making it through the jungle tells us the picture for women in paid work hasn't shifted nearly as much as expected even 10 years ago.

Women continue to need these opportunities to put some context around what they are experiencing and learn how others have coped because many workplaces are hanging onto stubbornly male breadwinner norms.

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Catherine FoxCredit:Louise Kennerley

No matter that women are the majority of higher education graduates and nearly half the paid workers of this country – the rules of engagement in the workplace and the kitchen haven't shifted to reflect this, and nor have leadership ranks.

Despite the impact on the nation's economy from lagging female workforce participation and low superannuation savings, it will be mostly women turning up at the functions in early March.

That's because the hard work of analysing and addressing gender barriers that continue to affect half the Australian workforce is still seen as women's business.

And yet, when it comes to those best placed to take action on these stumbling blocks – from the gender pay gap to a seat at the top table – it's still blokes who are overwhelmingly in charge. They not only run the system, they are the system. And they need to help change it.

Getting men to take responsibility alongside women for improving conditions and outcomes, as I argue in my new book StopFixing Women: why building fairer workplaces is everybody's business, is a badly needed circuit breaker if more equitable workplaces are to become reality.

A goal that, just in case a reminder is needed, is not only about having enough skilled workers for the future, but delivers consistently better outcomes in productivity, health and happiness for economies and all employees according to major studies from the OECD and the World Economic Forum.

Yet it doesn't matter if you run a small business, are a nurse or lawyer, the structural biases that see women failing to progress like men, facing long-term pay penalties after parenting leave and ending up with half the retirement savings of men on average are remarkably consistent and tenacious.

Instead of examining these significant structural biases, somehow the story about women's marginalisation at work has often ended up sounding like a broken record of innate female failings: low confidence and assertiveness, poor at negotiating, risk averse and just a tad too emotional.

It's a case of treating the symptoms and not the cause of gender discrimination, as Martin Parkinson, former Treasury and now Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary, told me he realised in a penny-dropping moment.

Telling women to act a bit more like men will not address the bias woven through recruiting, performance and pay assessments. Nor does it take into account the backlash women often face when they do behave confidently.

Yet this dated narrative that women are their own worst enemies continues to thrive, and, at best, leaves the status quo and the rules and practices of the workplace unchallenged. At worst, relying on the deficit model, as it is dubbed, just reinforces the very stereotypes that caused the problems in the first place.

On top of all that, the evidence suggests it simply hasn't delivered.

The number of women CEOs of ASX200 companies could fit in a minibus with seats to spare, and women MPs on the government benches in the federal House of Representatives fell to just 13 – or 17 per cent – after the 2016 election. Sectors such as construction have seen a decline from 17 per cent women employed in 2006 to just 12 per cent last year according to the ABS.

The pay gap remains at about 17 per cent and increases the further up the ladder women climb, and in states such as Western Australia. Yet even here, where robust data shows occupational segregation plays a strong part, women are told the onus is on them to "choose" better-paid occupations, ask for more and negotiate better. This neatly ignores a host of informal barriers and penalties women attract for doing just that.

And here's what else I discovered: some of the men stepping into a space they once feared to tread were clear it wasn't women who needed to change, but the world of work.

Along with the senior team at Treasury, Parkinson helped introduce new systems for recruitment and progression after discovering women graduates were more likely to end up in relationship roles rather than more prestigious analytical jobs.

And Lance Hockridge, former CEO of transport company Aurizon, made no bones about introducing measures to recruit more women into the traditional railway and transport business, appointing a cohort of all-women apprentices a year ago.

These are great examples but we need more of them. And more men at our side, not just the few who turn up at IWD, but all the time.

Because sending women off to more assertiveness training will not shift the way work is organised at home and in the office.

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That will only happen when men – all men – stop fixing women and start fixing the rules. It turns out the people with the best chance of breaking up the boys' club are the boys.